Marc Skinner has said that composure in front of goal is the ‘missing piece’ in finals against Chelsea for his side.
Skinner was speaking after Manchester United lost the third of their three finals against Chelsea. This time they went down 2-0 in the Subway Women’s League Cup final at Ashton Gate Stadium where Lauren James and Aggie Beever-Jones scored to ensure the silverware stayed in West London.
After the final, Marc Skinner spoke to the media and The Halfway Line was present to hear from him.
‘Frustration’ the overriding emotion for Marc Skinner
Skinner was frank in his assessment of the defeat and what his overriding emotions were so soon after the loss,
“Yeah, frustration really,” Skinner said. “I felt that between the boxes we were better with the ball, but they’re just, we’ve given them two goals, and they’re the best at finishing half chances, I think Chelsea.
“So we’ve given them the game in that sense, but I think overriding [is] just a sense of frustration, and we’ve created chances that on another day we score and I’ve got to kind of find out what that is in these finals.
“That is just the missing piece because the between the boxes, it builds you to the moment, but we’ve got to take the moments. And I think that’s probably the summary when I’ve had about 20 minutes to finalize it.
“I think tonight will be a busy time for my head to think about how we can do different in these bigger games.”
When asked if Skinner felt his charges were getting closer to beating Chelsea in a major final, he replied nodding his head,
“Absolutely do that’s why it’s so frustrating,” Skinner explained. “I think I look at their record [it] is incredible in this competition, I understand that, but I don’t think they’ve beaten us today in terms of the result has beaten us that, but I don’t think they’ve outplayed us by any means.
“That’s frustrating, I think, from our perspective. The one thing I do want to do though is I I want to stop having that conversation. So I want to ask my players to challenge themselves, because we have to stop getting closer and just be there and above.
“I think that’s where we have to be in the in the next couple of seasons, that’s my challenge for our players to not feel like this anymore.”
There’s ‘no fear’ against Chelsea insists Marc Skinner
In 19 matches against Chelsea, Manchester Untied have won just once and they are yet to taste victory against Sonia Bompastor in five attempts. Skinner was asked about facing Chelsea,
“It’s something I want to look at,” Skinner explained. “Somebody said, do we fear Chelsea? There’s no fear, you don’t play the way we play, through the thirds, if you fear playing against Chelsea, but there’s some block we need to unlock in both boxes.
“I think, you know, we know how good Lauren James is as a player, I think we gave her a little bit too much respect today. We’re a little bit too far off, [scared] just in case she beats you.
“I think those are moments where I’m going to reflect [on], because she can be the game changing difference. So I will look at it in that sense, but it’s definitely not fear. I think it’s more about us really throwing caution to the wind and not worrying and just getting on with the game.
“I think that’s something I’m going to look at [with] my team, because when I speak around my players there’s a frustration that we’ve not done more in the game and scored, and I think that is something against this team we have to identify.”
Players need to be ‘instinctual’ in front of goal says Skinner
Manchester United had several golden opportunities to score on Sunday but failed to take any of them. Suzy Wrack from the Guardian asked Skinner why it is that United seem to lack composure in big moments of major finals,
“It’s a great question,” Skinner said. “That’s why I’m going to see it search deep. I think it has to be an instruction of where we think the space will be against what opponent. So there is this coaching structure in there.
“But it’s also making me feel, making my making the players feel like they don’t have to over worry about it’s more instinctual it has to be instinctual in the box. It just looked like we were a little bit laboured in our decision making, like we were a little bit ‘oh shall I?’ when it should be just: ‘let’s go’ or deal with the consequence around it.
“ It’s a really good question, Suzy [Wrack] and I promise you, before I retire, it will be something I fix, because it’s something I’m really passionate about. The psychology of performance, especially in pressure moments, I think is something I really want to be be good at before I before I leave the game.”
